Friday, January 25, 2013

Corruption with Integrity

When I first heard this story, it left me not knowing whether to laugh or to cry. It is to do with bribery and corruption and while it certainly points to a very sad state of affairs, I am assuming that many of our readers will chuckle at the irony of it.

A friend of mine owns a retail outlet and one of his staff had asked if she could have a morning off to complete her driver’s licence test. Having previously seen her attempts at parking outside his shop while under the supervision of a driving instructor, he had his doubts that she would pass while she on the other hand, was super confident.

When she arrived back after having failed teary eyed and struggling to come terms with how it was at all possible, my friend Lance in an attempt to console her said to her "not to worry, you will pass next time" to which she replied “No I won’t! I can’t even pass even when I bribe the cop!” This of course peaked Lance’s curiosity and when he got the full story, he suddenly understood where her confidence had stemmed from.

On her way to the traffic department she stopped by the autobank and drew R800, 00 for bribe money. When she got there, once they were in the car she secretly handed the cash to the officer under the dashboard who happily accepted it.

Where it all went wrong was that her driving was so poor, particularly parallel parking which took place in full view of other people, bribe or no bribe, he simply couldn’t pass her. However before exiting the vehicle, the corrupt officer surreptitiously handed her back the cash. It turns out that his sense of integrity wouldn’t allow him to keep it, as he was unable to deliver on the service he had promised. GO FIGURE!